Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Vallejo Votes For Bankruptcy - Politics News Story - KNTV | San Francisco: "After nearly five hours, the Vallejo City Council voted unanimously late Tuesday night to file Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. The city faces a $16 million deficit in the 2008-2009 budget starting July 1 and unsuccessfully negotiated with its police, firefighter and electrical workers unions for contract concessions through 2012. Public safety salaries comprise 74 percent of the city's general fund budget...Vallejo joins a small number of municipalities that have declared bankruptcy should officials decide it's their only option. Orange County declared bankruptcy in the 1990s after then-Treasurer Robert L. Citron borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars while speculating in high-risk securities investments that depended on low interest rates. The county lost $1.64 billion. Desert Hot Springs also filed for bankruptcy in 2001."---------------------Local governments are under considerable pressure these days. Nobody wants to pay taxes, the federal government is dumping responsibilities (unfunded mandates) on them, people move around like crazy, and the housing finance meltdown is still making big ripples.

With cutlass-wielding youngsters running around in eye patches, he thought, a Jolly Roger flag would add the perfect finishing touch - and he duly hung the Skull and Crossbones from the side of the family home.

Unfortunately the local council didn't see the jolly side and Mr Waterman has been threatened with prosecution unless he removes the 5ft by 3ft banner."-----------Flag banning: it's not just for HOAs anymore.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Housing Crisis Is Over - WSJ.com: "The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.

How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor."------------I hope this writer has it figured out, but there are isn't one housing market. There are many different geographical areas and within each there are sub-markets for different types of housing and price ranges. It may be that we have hit bottom in the aggregate, but is that true of the entire Sun Belt?

CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police | UK news | The GuardianMassive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

---------------That seems counter-intuitive, but if you look at the recommendations from Scotland Yard, the problem may be related to difficulty in identifying people on the videos.